Wands of Lightning in BG2?

[SixOfSpades]

A curious thing happened to me last night....

In one of the fights early in the game (those roughnecks upstairs in the inn in Waukeen's Promenade), I wanted to take out the Mage first, so he wouldn't cast Confusion or anything. So I had my Mage/Thief go into Stealth and fire his Wand of Lightning at the guy to put a serious dent in his hitpoints. Except that the Wand didn't go off--nothing happened. So I fired the wand at the guy again, still nothing. I kept clicking, and noticed that a little number next to the "Cast Spell Here" icon was decreasing, and when it reached zero, ALL those shots went off at once, so that the Mage took 6 Bolts of Lightning simultaneously, plus rebounds. He died instantly, of course, but I used up all the charges on my Wand. Is this a bug? Or just a new way of using Wands? I reloaded and tried the Wand of Fire, but that only had 1 charge in it anyway.

And now I'm wondering what would have happened if I'd killed another guy instead, that Thief who runs away (Brennan Riesling or however it was spelled).

[daan]

I believe the wand of lighting has changed a little yes.
Your wand only had ONE charge left, but ONE charge equals 6 / 7 lightning bolts, which you can fire at different enemies, or all at one. I'm not sure if this is a special wand , since it is the one you find in Irenicus' Dungeon ...

To answer your next question, killing the thief wont matter ...
I did it a few times, but killing him doesnt get you anything too special.

What i did find odd, was that the guy seemed to be able to backstab me EVERY time he hit me, becoming invisible just before attacking,
without using potions,rings,spells etc.
And he's only a 13th lvl thief, what's up with that ??

[fable]

To answer your next question, killing the thief wont matter ... I did it a few times, but killing him doesnt get you anything too special.

The SandThief's Ring that he has grants invisibility once a day: a small but very useful benefit to youngish parties.

[Hayashi]

IIRC the wand of lightning is able to shoot about 6 bolts for every charge on the wand. When you use it, you'll see the icon for spell casting (stars and crescent moon), with a small number (like a subscript) on the lower right. Each time you designate a target that number will decrease by by one. When the last bolt has been aimed, the wand will fire.

Most of the wands that you pick up this early in the game contain only one charge. But there's a way to recharge them (legitimately, imho) - by selling the wand and buying it back from the merchant you sold it to. You'll need lotsa $$ for this of course.

Alternatively, you could try stealing it from the merchant, but this will flag the wand as "stolen goods" and you will NOT be able to recharge it this way with most merchants again, as they do not accept stolen stuff. Then your only recourse would be to find someone who is willing to deal with "fenced goods'. Off hand I can think of only two merchants in the city who accept stolen goods.

[Dundee Slaytern]

There are 5 black-market merchants in Amn. 6 if you are a Thief and have the Thief Guild.

[SixOfSpades]

Yep, you guys are quite right--Wands of Lightning now fire 6 bolts per charge, 3D6 of damage per bolt. Guess I should have read the Wand's description, but I'd just assumed that a Wand of Lightning was, well, a Wand of Lightning. Duh.

And like you said, Brennan Risling IS killable after all--I'd thought that his running away was a script to make sure he survives, because I was probably going to see him later in the game, perhaps even plot-related. But I got lucky, and right after his "I'm getting out of here" line, I happened to have an arrow in flight that nailed him for his last 3 Damage. So I got EVERYBODY'S loot, (Yay!) and all I spent on that fight was a few bucks for a Potion of Absorbtion and Invisibility. Thanks!

[Nifft the Nimble]

Wow, what an amazing wand. I had no idea; those I'd always sold, since lightning bolts are frightening. I'm going to be enjoying my wands a bit more from now on...

Thanks!

-- Nifft